On January 14, 2002, Geralyn DeSoto was murdered in her home in Addis, Louisiana home (via WAFB). The LSU grad student was only 21 years old. According to Susan D. Mustafa, DeSoto was found by her husband when he returned home from work later that day. In fact, WBRZ writes that police suspected that he had been the one who had killed her. Although DNA evidence was present, it did not yield any results when it was tested, and her murder remained unsolved (per another article from WAFB). Only a few months later, 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace was murdered in her Baton Rouge apartment.
Per WBRZ, she had been stabbed to death and sexually assaulted. After Pace's murder, DeSoto's family noticed some eerie similarities between the two crimes (via KPLC). Both DeSoto and Pace were grad students at LSU and had been murdered around the same time of day. Moreover, they had been beaten and stabbed. Whoever had killed the two women had also taken their phones and slashed their throats. Ultimately, this led DeSoto's family to believe she was the victim of a serial killer.
In July 2002, Diane Alexander was violently attacked in her home by a man that had asked to use her phone (per WBRZ). She survived and was able to provide police with a sketch of the suspect. Authorities instantly noticed the similarity between the sketch and known criminal Derrick Todd Lee (per CNN).
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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